2023 SENS Research Grant (Summer LOI Intake)

Eligibility

Eligible Applicants 

SENS Research Foundation will accept proposals from:

• established PIs from any country around the globe, from either academic institutions or independent nonprofit research centers.
• postdoctoral students working within such institutions, provided they have already obtained the approval of their PI to run the proposed project.

Eligible Proposals

• SENS Research Foundation will only support proposals with a clear and direct path toward a clearly-conceived, translatable medical intervention for use against the degenerative aging process in humans: SENS will not fund proposals for early discovery- or curiosity-driven basic research, or for descriptive studies.
• SENS Research Foundation was founded to catalyze progress in the “damage-repair” approach for medical intervention in degenerative aging, and SENS will only fund proposals that clearly offer the potential to progress toward medical therapies using this approach. “Damage-repair” interventions are those that directly remove, repair, replace, or render harmless specific cellular and molecular “damage” in aging tissues.

Summary

Many things go wrong with aging bodies, but at the root of them all is the burden of decades of unrepaired damage to the cellular and molecular structures that make up the functional units of our tissues. As each essential microscopic structure fails, tissue function becomes progressively compromised – imperceptibly at first, but ending in the slide into the diseases and disabilities of aging.

SENS Research Foundation’s strategy to prevent and reverse age-related ill-health is to apply the principles of regenerative medicine to repair the damage of aging at the level where it occurs. SENS supports the development of a new kind of medicine: regenerative therapies that remove, repair, replace, or render harmless the cellular and molecular damage that has accumulated in our tissues with time. By reconstructing the structured order of the living machinery of our tissues, these rejuvenation biotechnologies will restore the normal functioning of the body’s cells and essential biomolecules, returning aging tissues to health and bringing back the body’s youthful vigor.

SENS Research Foundation regularly funds external research with potential to accelerate the development of rejuvenation biotechnology. Applicants for financial support will be expected to clearly indicate the specific SENS target(s) addressed and explain how their proposed research would further progress toward therapies that remove, repair, replace, or render harmless that target. All proposals are reviewed and selected by our Research Development Committee (RDC), and its decisions are ratified by our Board of Directors.  The RDC convenes quarterly. Submission due dates are as follows:

• First Quarter review: by February 1st
• Second Quarter review: by May 1st
• Third Quarter review: by August 1st
• Fourth Quarter review: by November 1st

Overhead

N/A. The SENS Research Foundation does not cover indirect costs.

Application deadlines

RSO detailed review deadline

RSO final internal review deadline

Program application deadline

NOTE: Consult your Faculty Associate Dean (Research) (ADR) regarding Faculty-specific deadlines and submission processes.

Principal Investigators: Complete a Research Management System (RMS) record, including a copy of your complete application, and submit this for approvals in RMS.

Postdoctoral PIs: You must complete the Research Funding Application Approval (RFAA) Trainee PDF form, and submit it, along with a complete copy of the application, to Research Services at rsogrants@ucalgary.ca. Trainees should not use RMS at this time.

Approvals: The University of Calgary requires that all funding applications be approved prior to submission. Approval requires signatures via either RMS or the RFAA Trainee form, in the following order:

• Principal Investigator
• Department Head
• Faculty ADR/Dean
• Research Services (on behalf of the Vice-President Research)

Read the Meaning of Grant Signatures policy to understand what your approval means. Please see the agency guidelines for details about which signatures are required on your application, as it may differ from internal requirements.

Late submissions: Late submissions will only be accepted in cases of medical or family emergencies, or other exceptional circumstances. If you submit your RMS record to Research Services after the internal deadline has passed, you must secure additional approvals. Please read: Late Applications Process.